Sketchbooks
by Jaya Mitai
Summary: Much like PAA: Odds Without Ends, this is a collection of D.Gray-Man shorts. The first illustrates a night out with Generals Tiedoll and Klaud.


**Disclaimer**: Don't own Man. Making no money. Please don't sue. Please also see Author's Notes at the end.

-x-

"Oh, is that how you keep such a dainty figure?"

The blonde woman barely flicked her eyes towards him as she claimed his salad for her own. "It's rare I see bleu cheese." She didn't even attempt to be apologetic, and from somewhere under the pristine linen tablecloth, a tiny, black-skinned hand emerged, patting the edge of the plate before stealing a cherry tomato with frightening accuracy.

The man smiled indulgently and adjusted his red-rimmed glasses, leaning back with a sigh. "Then I assume you will forgive my appalling table manners."

"Hmph," the woman replied noncommittally, and began chewing.

"I'm certain Jerry would be happy to provide you with such delights," he continued pleasantly, as if they were on a breezy French hillside in the midst of a fine April day with a blanket, bottle of wine, baguette, and creamery cheese. In fact the analogy could not have been more wrong; there was almost no visible sunlight, let alone sky, the wind was caused by the couples whirling in dance on the main floor, and the meal had been anything but peasant fare. Oh, there was wine, bread, and cheese, but there had also been the most exquisite shank of lamb, braised beef and peppers, veal in Italian sauce, and more roast chickens than he could easily count.

"Though I suppose you could counter with the same." And eating a heavy meal, given present company, had been simply _insanely_ stupid, but the wine gave him a pleasantly warm feeling about the whole thing, and the music was really top-notch.

Though it was nothing compared to what had his attention now.

His dining partner, his junior by eight years, ignored him entirely. She managed to make the silverware look more elegant simply by holding it in one of her fine hands, and he might have sketched it if he'd had some charcoal handy. The tablecloth could serve as his canvas, in fact she could wear it out if it had become chilly while they were supping-

The chair right beside him was pulled away from the table. "Do you mind?"

He gave a lazy wave, not bothered enough to change his position or attention, and Klaud was forced to speak for him.

"Terribly."

The stranger laughed politely and took his seat, tossing a very fine top hat onto the empty place setting. "Many apologies. I don't recall seeing your names on the guest list."

"You can read?" Her voice was arch. "How impressive."

"Ah, how you wound me."

"I can hope."

"Goodness, and he was so polite," Tiedoll chided gently. "I fear we're giving you a terrible impression."

"No, let the woman speak her mind." The stranger didn't seem ruffled in the slightest, and as if by magic, the waiter filled the empty glass he had chosen with a delicate red. Tiedoll didn't bother to look, but he listened to the man admire the bouquet before taking a sip. "It's refreshing."

Klaud laughed, low in her throat, and Tiedoll winced. "If I may be so bold, allow me to suggest baiting a tiger is never a smart decision."

"It's hardly a tiger," a young voice popped up, just beside Tiedoll's elbow. "It's a dirty little monkey. I can see it under the table." But then there was a bubble of curiosity. "How did you get it in here?"

Tiedoll let his head roll on the back of the chair to look at his colleague. "I do believe they've spotted us."

She merely raised an eyebrow in reply, letting her gaze fall back to Tyki Mikk. He was very causally perched, wine glass in hand, regarding her in a manner that might suggest she was his next conquest, even though Klaud appeared several years his elder. "And here we tried so hard to blend in."

It was true; there wasn't a sigil of the Church or Order on them. His dining partner, rather than wearing her trademark white leggings and shirt was in a magnificent turquoise gown, her blonde hair pulled back in a style more elegant than her usual utilitarian inside-out bun. She was still shy regarding the left side of her face, however, and her bangs created an artful golden waterfall that simply begged one to stare between the strands to glimpse what lay beneath.

As for him, one might say he looked dapper. He was in black, much the same as Mikk, though the Noah had obviously found a slightly more talented tailor than he. A turquoise handkerchief in his left breast pocket marked them as a couple, though he noticed Mikk's matching ivory silk could technically work with any gown in the ballroom. Tiedoll was rather fond of the getup, which included a silken inner vest, French collar, a lovely pair of cufflinks he'd made himself while visiting Kenya, and his dancing shoes.

The young voice at Tiedoll's elbow laughed, crystal shattering on marble. "But we saw you when you came in."

"Rhode does like to watch everyone arrive, you know." It was as if Mikk was letting them in on a secret; he reached into his jacket pocket to remove a cigarette case. "It wouldn't be appropriate for anyone at the ball to have outdressed her."

"Perish the thought," Tiedoll added helpfully, and abruptly there was what was possibly a hundred year old Noah swarming into his lap, complete with an impish little smile.

"I think I like this one! Can I keep him?"

Tyki gave her a mildly surprised look, then shook out his match. "Neh, neh, I thought you liked Allen? This one's too old."

"I'm bored." Klaud placed the fork with the handle pointing directly to her chest, to signal the wait staff that she was finished. "Shall we get on with it?"

Mikk exchanged a look with Rhode, who went so far as to turn around so that she was sitting familiarly in the general's lap, swinging her legs gently. She heaved a little sigh.

"You'll do as you like." It sounded a little defeated, though it got an amused smirk out of Mikk. He stubbed out the quarter-smoked cigarette, though, and gave Klaud an appraising look.

"Perhaps it is time," he agreed. "Let's see if your feet are as quick as your tongue."

And then the Noah stood, not too abruptly, and offered the only female Order general the crook of his arm.

Tiedoll picked up his head completely to watch, which made Rhode giggle. Remarkably, Klaud didn't kill him outright; the blonde woman gave Mikk a long appraising look.

"Please don't say no, general. My reputation would simply be shattered if you refused."

"Stop giving me reasons," she snapped in return, but then she stood (her napkin magically missing from her lap) and wove that elegant hand into the offered elbow. In fact, her fingers shifted the fabric of Mikk's tuxedo, and though she did not lean on him as he smiled politely and led her to the dance floor, Tiedoll was almost certain she _could_ have.

Rhode watched them go with bright eyes. "Tyki loves the waltz," she murmured, to no one in particular.

"It's a lovely dance," Tiedoll remarked in the same manner. "When it was first introduced, of course, it was scandalous, that partners would be touching and all that running around. So exciting and intimate."

"Mmm," the little girl murmured, and it was Tiedoll's turn to smile.

"Then again, I suppose you were there."

The crystal laugh again. "You're more fun than Yeegar was."

He refused to rise to the bait. They had known, when he'd returned, that Tyki Mikk had been the one to remove some organs, orchestrate his death, but the song he sang, that was too childish, and too close, to have been the more sedate Mikk. "I suppose I should be flattered."

The girl shrugged, glancing around the ballroom suddenly as the dancing couple – Noah and Exorcist – spun to where they could see the table. "What did you hope to accomplish, Mr. Fluffy Hair?"

Tiedoll took a deep, slow breath, half to give himself time to come up with a suitable reply, and half because he was not used to the weight of a small person sitting on him. It had been a long time since any of his pupils had been that small. "We already have," he corrected. "Otherwise I would not have had quite so much to drink."

"Didn't you think it would be poisoned?"

"Not especially. It would ruin your affair, just as attacking us outright will." The first of many reasons why he was perfectly safe with a Noah all but in his arms. "Whereas we don't really care if the ball is interrupted. It was in your best interest to watch us from afar."

"It's only one ball," Rhode murmured, and suddenly she was not the innocent little girl. "Tyki and I would be enough to defeat you ourselves."

The way she said it hinted at the sentence she had not spoken. "But there are more Noah here than just you two."

The giggle was back, but more mature than before. The Noah, then, less the host. "Half of my family is in attendance, Exorcist. You are correct that we will not attack you here, but you cannot expect to leave the hall alive."

"Well, then I must say I'm disappointed," Tiedoll admitted, bouncing his knee. "As pleasant as you are, I was rather hoping the Earl would come by himself. Since we're obviously dead and thus there's nothing to worry about."

The girl twisted in his lap to look at him, holding a lollipop he didn't recall her having a moment ago. "And why do you think you deserve such an honor?"

His eyes were drawn back to the ceiling. "Perhaps think of it like a punishment, because we're the only two Exorcists that managed to get ourselves noticed."

Whatever she was going to say died on her lips, and he felt an odd, overwhelming desire to give her a smirk befitting his more acidic pupil. "You noticed that Klaud and I have eschewed our uniforms for the evening, but did you ever consider that perhaps other Exorcists had done so as well?"

She slid off his lap in one fluid movement, lollipop forgotten in her hand, and Tiedoll wondered briefly if it really was candy. "You're lying."

He determined a Kanda-like smirk would be ineffective due to his mustache, and went for something a bit condescending instead. "It's unsettling, isn't it. When the rules change. After all these years, you've all grown comfortable in the fact that we Exorcists paint targets on ourselves. You assume that we always will, since without one side doing so both would be oblivious to the other."

He cocked his head to the side, watching her. "But everything changed. The Earl took Exorcists onto the Ark and against all odds they survived. You yourself bear a scar from that day, don't you, Rhode Camelot?"

She took a step back, and Tiedoll was more certain than ever that it was not really a lollipop. But she couldn't go far; she bumped into a young man who bore a striking resemblance to Mikk, still dancing with Klaud, and he put out his gloved hands to steady her.

"Goodness, dearling, you should be more careful!" he chided gently, giving Tiedoll a polite nod. "My apologizes if she's been a bother, sir. I will have to take it out of her uncle's hide."

The way his friendly gaze turned sharply to the dancers meant he was looking for one in particular. Mikk. Rhode was disguised as Tyki's niece. She sulked in the man's arms but did not try to pull away, glaring daggers at Tiedoll, and he sighed.

It was extremely unlikely Rhode would allow herself to be touched so familiarly by a human, even to keep her cover. Not when the Noah within her was so angry.

But was this man the Earl . . . ? Was this what he looked like when he was playing at being human?

"Not at all," he said affably, taking up his wineglass in an effort not to lose that warm feeling. The waltz was done; the breathless couples were making their way from the floor as a beurre was struck up, and the stranger gave Tiedoll a bright smile.

"She's such a darling thing, though, isn't she?"

"Oh, yes."

"I'm glad you find her so!" Tyki was leading a rather amused-looking Klaud back to the table, and his eyebrow quirked at the occupants.

"You see, I'm having a hard time determining why you would intentionally bait her." The friendly smile never vanished, though Tyki masked a sudden blink of surprise. "It's extremely unbecoming of you."

His fellow general took a gusty breath. "Are you finished flirting, old man?"

"No." Tiedoll put down the wine, taking his feet. "We're perfectly safe. If this gathering was truly insignificant enough, you would have already summoned an Akuma to chase out the nobles and deal with us."

"I have every intention of 'dealing' with you, as you put it." This time it was Tyki, eyes a bit sharper. Somehow the pleasure he'd taken in the game was gone. Tiedoll gave his near lookalike a second glance. The facial structure was just too . . . unapelike. The jaw was too fine, the structure of the skull was all wrong. The Earl had appeared the same throughout history, unlike the rest of the Noah clan. Surely he would thus have the same structure of humans from those ages ago?

"Do you?" Klaud circled the table to take hold of her pocketbook. "You're a fair dancer, Mikk, but my whip cracks a faster tune."

He bared his teeth, just a little, but Rhode interrupted them. "Why are you here?"

An excellent question. "Ah, I fear you would not believe me if I told you."

"It would seem," the stranger said, still looking quite approachable, "that one of our guests is in fact the Order's patsy."

Rhode snorted. "Then you've thrown away the only advantage you had. We'll find them now that we know to look."

Tiedoll exchanged a glance with Klaud, but she looked utterly disinterested. Oh well, he could talk for hours. "Will you? I wonder." The night had been fair enough that they hadn't brought coats, and despite the liquid bravery he still knew the difference between frightening someone and forcing them into action. "In that case, perhaps we should leave you to it. Good evening."

Tyki's chin tilted a bit downward, and for the first time that evening his eyes seemed a little yellow. "Then please allow me to see you off."

"Of course." He turned his back on them, offering Klaud his elbow much in the same way Mikk had, and she took it a bit more gracefully than she had with the Noah. He felt them hesitate, and though he knew Lau Jimin would prevent any attack it still gnawed at him in a way the wine couldn't buffer him from.

"Let them go," said the unfamiliar voice.

There was a sound of protest from Mikk, but the low rumble of a reply was lost in a swell of a rather lively mazurka, and Klaud never gave him any indication of trouble, not even when they crossed the wide lobby and out into the evening air.

Doubtlessly they'd get hit with a wave of Akuma as soon as the explosions wouldn't upset the ball, but that had been unavoidable as soon as they'd realized what it was they'd stumbled into.

Klaud gave a loud sigh, then shuddered. "Ugh. I need a bath."

He wasn't sure if she was referring to sweat, the day, or the fact that she probably had had contact with a Noah. So had he, but he had no such inclination. Then again, Rhode hadn't been dancing. Or sweating. Either way it reminded him. "You look lovely tonight."

They walked in silence a moment, each deep in their own thoughts, before Klaud let loose with a half-hearted chuckle. It became a snort of laughter, infectious and raw, and soon the two of them were leaning against a wrought iron fence, howling, with tears running down their cheeks. Tiedoll had had to remove his glasses to wipe them dry, and Lau Jimin was in the tree above them, stealthily stalking half-sleeping pigeons by the time they caught their breath

"I think this was the most fun I've had in years," she chuckled, easing her back against the iron posts to give herself a gentle scratch. By the time he had gotten his glasses dried and his hands free to assist she was finished. Probably the beadwork was tickling her.

"I am glad I can still show a lovely woman a good time."

But Klaud shook her head with a smile. "What _did_ you tell that girl? I thought she was going to take you apart."

Tiedoll stared up at the evening sky, waiting for the shadows to come. "I pointed out what a terrible world it would be, if all Exorcists decided not to wear their uniforms one night."

Klaud was silent a moment. "You told her there were other Exorcists."

"Not in so many words."

The female general shook her head. "Was the Earl there?"

A more sobering question. "I think so. Could you tell who he was?"

Klaud Nyne frowned. "No. Mikk didn't give it away. Why do you suppose they did not pursue us?

He did his best to contain a sigh. "Rhode Camelot said that half her family was there, but they might have thought we were purposefully luring as many Noah away as possible to allow hidden Exorcists to launch an attack on the remaining." And in hindsight it was a feasible strategy. Assuming one had enough advance notice of such an occasion.

But quite unfortunately, the unknown Noah was wrong. The Order did not have a patsy in that group. Tiedoll pulled out his pocketwatch, registering the time. "I recognized one of the Queen's dukes." But whether that duke was there simply as a social obligation or a slave of the Earl . . .

The other general shrugged. "You're more familiar with that crowd than I."

"There were no American diplomats?"

Her smile was wan. "Just debutants. I'm no Bookman, Froi."

That was true, and he let it go, eyeing a darkening that could be a low cloud – or something more sinister.

"Nyne, dear?"

"Hmm?"

"Was Lau with you when you and Mikk were dancing?"

She cooed up at the tree, and there was a skittering and a sudden rush of wings before an exuberant white monkey landed happily on her shoulder, wearing down feathers. "Of course."

". . . _where_, if you don't mind my asking?"

"I mind your asking." She clicked her tongue at the Innocence, which scampered off along the bottom of the fence to take up a defensive position. She then turned her back to Tiedoll pointedly. "Now, I do hope that you're satisfied."

"Oh, I am." It was one of the high points of his life, actually, and if a passerby should have seen him, positively leering in remembered pleasure while he carefully took a lady's gown apart, they would have been scandalized. The whip detached very easily from the gown, which was rather interesting, and he was sure Klaud could have gotten to it herself if not for her coiffed hair. "Do you always carry this around with you?"

". . . eh? Oh, the gown? Yes, one of them." She accepted her Innocence with a smile, suddenly shying away from him. "You never know when you will by chance meet another general, for example, who will suggest you both enter the city because of this historic mural that was painted by some American impressionist you've never heard of, that will end up being on the ceiling of an exclusive dance hall from the sixteen hundreds. And on the occasions when that happens, it will of course require you to infiltrate a private dinner party and ball to view the mural."

"Frank Weston Benson," Tiedoll heard himself say almost dreamily. "Wasn't it lovely?"

"It was a painting." The woman coiled her whip loosely in her hands, tucking her elbows into a convenient wrought iron filigree. "It looked like any other painting. Except larger, and with fatter women."

Oh, but it was exquisite. He could have looked at it happily all night, there on the round, concave ceiling that had been built five feet taller than any other ballroom of its type. There was truly none other like it in the world.

"Though it's a bit disconcerting that the Earl and I have the same taste in art," he observed aloud. "Really, that was either a patch of extremely awful luck, or the work of God."

Klaud snorted. "I've always had a hard time telling those two apart. Were you planning on having pleasant conversation with the Akuma as well?" She indicated the approaching mob with the butt of her whip, and he sighed.

"This is not the nightcap I would have preferred," he murmured, freeing Maker of Eden and giving it a fond smile. "Though I have a new beauty to show them."

"Ugh. If you make a bunch of fat naked women I'm leaving you here."

-x-

**Author's Notes**: This was just an little odd and end I wrote ages ago, and since my output has been nil for a while, and I still owe Melric her pressie as well as finishing Trial and Error, I thought I would give you guys a little cute fluff to keep you busy while I continue to fail to update like a good little author. This was written for Silverfox2702 as a bribe, but I no longer remember for what . . .


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